Bi-weekly garbage collection leads to complaints about maggots

It is an experience that will send shivers down your spine. You open up your waste-can to find it teeming with maggots.

Ottawa resident Delta Jones and her family are usually careful about composting but something nasty accidentally ended up in their trash.

“We are big fans of using the green bin,” says Jones, “Apparently we put something in the garbage that we weren't supposed to a couple of weeks ago. We quickly realized that we had maggots and the bag was ripped, so we had to deal with that for two weeks.”

The long string of steamy weather has turned waste-cans into breeding grounds for maggots. And this is the first summer since twice-a-month garbage pick-up was introduced in Ottawa back in October.

The City of Ottawa says you can prevent maggots by regularly rinsing out your garbage can and green bin. It also suggests keeping items like meat scraps in the freezer until garbage day.